Progress and planning

Ok, it has been four months since I got back to the gym.  In that time I have gained some of my muscle back, dropped 6-7kg body weight, and gotten back ~75-80% of peak strength, as well as suffering a few niggles with my elbow and shoulders.

Overall, very happy with this progress.  But, over the next month I have a bit of travel and this will slow some progress, but also good to help healing and I will be trying to do hotel room exercises, stretching and onwards.

But, watching Mark Bells video this morning got me thinking along a similar line.  Without the 600lb bench and infringing the IPF doping requirements :)

Competition weight will be 105kg or 231lb.  To hit this I need to drop a good 15-20kg of fat, and hopefully gain a bit of lean.  That is the primary goal of this year.

Goal 1. Get body weight below competition weight

The earlier I do this, the sooner I can balance back into the body weight, to start work on the next goal, solidify upper body mass.  Legs will be important, but the reality is I need larger chest, shoulders, arms and back.

Goal 2. Improve upper body mass

This will be focused on short hypertrophy blocks while maintaining lower body - this is an open ended target that will be the focus of attention between the longer competition prep/peak blocks for next year.

I need to compete.  Maybe working through to the nationals, but this is not an absolute target, but depends on how the progress goes.

Goal 3.  Compete

The target will be for club competition, local championships, and perhaps the Nationals, or a late year 3-lift meet that I competed in a few years ago.  First meet is just to get some numbers on the board, so will not be overly stressful.

On top of this I need to purchase gear to compete in.  This includes a suit and wrist wraps - assuming I am just benching.  If I do a three lift, then I would need socks and new belt that meets IPF requirements.  Maybe a set of knee sleeves.

Over the course of all this, I need to focus on my nutrition, my supplementation and overall health.  This means, my diet will be focused around maintaining my fat mass, or reducing it, but maintaining or increasing lean body mass.  My primary supplement will be a protein source (ease of use) and creatine.  Other than this, HMB or Beta-Alanine is potentially of interest, but less substance in terms of data available for these.    Fish oil will likely be added in.  Stretching and general maintenance will be carried out at night, and I will keep some cardio/walking to move things.

Hope to get over 160kg for bench in the next year, preferably over 170kg.  Best competition bench is 190 with a shirt, so I will beat that before I get too old.

That's a plan, now to execute it.